Message will go to President of Indian Farmers Union Ekta Mr Joginder Singh Ugrahan . amolak1955@gmail.com The Socialist Labour Party sends greetings and a message of solidarity to Comrades in struggle against the imposition of draconian laws on Farmers and Workers across India. Some of our members in Birmingham in the Indian Workers’ Association are working tirelessly making links with you in India and with others across the U.K. and internationally. We are urging support from across the Labour Movement. The Leader of the SLP is Arthur Scargill who led the Miners’ Struggle in the UK when he was President of the National Union of Mineworkers from 1982 to 2002, particularly during the 1984/5 strike when Comrades and Unions gave their support, not least from India. The successive crises of Capitalism have hit working people hardest, including here in the UK, where as in India the Covid 19 virus has had a disproportionate effect on them, but instead of giving help the pandemic is used as a weapon to further weaken the oppressed while a wealthy elite are helped to further enrich themselves. The mainstream media largely owned by the ruling class have failed to report on the actions being taken in India, described as the largest of its kind in history. The determination of the Indian people to see this struggle through without compromise is an example for all who share their experience of exploitation. Arthur Scargill, Leader, Socialist Labour Party John Tyrrell, President, Socialist Labour Party Sign Petition: Narendra Modi: Support Farmers: Revoke Farmer Ordinance Bill 2020 Millions of farmers in India have been protesting ***** The great peasant movement in India, which began with the passage of three controversial laws by the Modi government on August 9, took the form of an astonishing movement on November 26. Hundreds of thousands of farmers have been protesting in Delhi, Bombay and other cities for the past 35 days. They include children, the elderly and a large number of women farmers, who burned their boats and left their homes to protest against the deprivation of the right to cultivate their land and sell it at a fair price in the market Have turned out Protesting farmers are not ready to end their protests until controversial laws are repealed. When the farmers’ movement first started in Punjab, the Communist government of Kerala, in support of them, announced that it would not enforce these controversial central government laws within its borders. At the same time farmers from Haryana and UP came out and then farmers from Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh also joined. The United Front of Farmers, called the Kisan Ekta Morcha, is a united platform of 31 Indian farmers’ organizations that has the support of all political parties in India’s opposition and is now becoming a political force. So far, the number of farmers and their supporters has exceeded 250 million, making it the longest-running movement in the history of the world. Now the pro-Modi government farmers’ organizations have also supported this movement. The movement became strong and organized when the government set up containers to stop them, used water cannons and resorted to violence. On the other hand, the Supreme Court of India, while recognizing the farmers’ protest as their democratic right, ordered an end to violence and removal of barriers. More than 1.75 billion people in the subcontinent are still deprived of basic human rights, basic necessities, even clean drinking water, after 73 years of independence. More than 90% of the people of these countries are deprived of basic human needs even in the 21st century scientific inventions, information technology, digital and computer age. The upper classes and the establishment of both India and Pakistan have been in power since independence and they have shattered the people’s dream of freedom. Pakistan came under the complete control of the Establishment only a few years after independence, and this is the same Establishment that has been an effective weapon of British imperialism for almost two and a half centuries, and has a successful experience of fighting and rolling. Now even the ruling classes of India resort to caste, religion and linguistic divisions to divide the people and increase their exploitation. India’s Ashrafia and Rolling Elite have used the religious card so ruthlessly over the past decade that its democratic and secular history and values have disappeared. This process has not only harmed India’s democratic forces but also shaken the foundations of the progressive movement. In the last few years, there have been encouraging efforts in India and Pakistan to unite the progressive forces and create a new movement. Progressive forces have made encouraging efforts to consolidate their resources and strength through alliances and mergers and restore their street power, and the effects are clear. Last month, a seven-day grand sit-in in Gilgit-Baltistan to demand the release of 14 political prisoners, including Baba Jan, the main leader of the Awami Workers Party, forced our oppressive and chaotic establishment to release the prisoners on false charges of terrorism and treason. He was sentenced to 40 to 90 years in prison. In the last few years, there has been a tremendous upsurge in progressive politics and the struggle for the rights of the oppressed classes in India. In the last three or four years, there have been bigger rallies of workers and peasants than have ever been seen before in history. As of this writing, it has been 35 days since millions of farmers protested in Bombay and Delhi under the recent farmers’ movement. Now the farmers have announced to take control of all the toll plazas in Bombay and Delhi and to hold similar sit-ins in other cities of the country if the demands are not accepted. Let’s take a look at the demands of particle farmers: 1. All government subsidies for farmers and the minimum support price or MSP, which the government used to guarantee farmers better cultivation of cereals, rice, wheat, etc., have been abolished. The government operated the infrastructure, ie procurement warehouses, where a farmer could pick up his crop and sell it to the government. But under the new law, the government has replaced the usual method of procurement with private corporations and private companies, where farmers will have to do contract farming with the corporate and private sector. The company will add whatever it wants to the contract and set its own price. Poor farmers are already being brutally exploited in India which will increase even more and the farmers will have no welfare. 2. If a farmer has a dispute with a private company over the sale of his crop, he cannot go to court. If a large corporation exploits them as citizens of India, then 50 to 60% of India’s rural population will have no legal recourse. They will not be able to go to the courts of their own country for redress. Instead, some local government officials will have the power to try to resolve disputes. You know who the corrupt government official will be in favor of? 3. Any person or organization can store or store an unlimited amount of any essential goods or food products. 90 to 95% of farmers have neither the means nor the resources to make their own cold storage, but the big corporations can do it and they can multiply the profit by storing commodities whenever they want. In this way, the Indian government is handing over the largest and poorest section of its population to wolves. 4. The protesting farmers are demanding full and unconditional relief from rising debts and electricity bills due to rising inflation and unreasonable taxes. The All India Kisan Sabha has alleged that due to this, 1753 farmers, who have been in debt since June 2017, have taken their own lives. دنے۔ 5. Farmers have demanded a price of at least 1.5 times the cost of cultivation to compensate for the production of fields. 6. The recommendations of the Swamyathan Commission made to review the demands of the farmers have been justified by the demands of the farmers for immediate implementation of the recommendations of the Swamyathan Commission and this report protects the interests of the farmers. 7. Crop damage caused by unseasonal rains, hailstorms and pink bollworm infestation in February has been called for. 8. The state government should stop forcibly occupying agricultural lands in the name of development projects. Farmers demand that the Forest Rights Act be enacted, which will protect the tribal population, which is very poor and backward. The common platform of 27 trade unions of Indian workers has declared its full solidarity with the struggle of the farmers, including their practical participation in their protest measures at all levels. Similarly, the Joint Peasants’ Movement has also supported and solidified the general strike of industrial workers. More importantly, in India, this solidarity is not limited to rhetoric, but is seen on the ground. The demand for solidarity and support through the two joint platforms has led to greater coordination and implementation of the labor and peasant movements. Since the beginning of the strike, thousands of farmers and agricultural workers have taken part in protests across the country. People are also on the streets today to show solidarity with the protests of thousands of workers and farmers. The BJP government used all possible tactics to prevent the protesters from reaching the national capital. India’s working class is engaged in full solidarity in support of the farmers. The Joint Platform of Trade Unions had called on its workers to fully support the demand of the All India Farmers’ Struggle Coordination Committee for local level demonstrations from December 1 and is implementing it. In a show of solidarity between the workers and the peasants, the united path has been taken to intensify the struggle against the anti-labor, anti-national, neo-liberal policies and the Modi-led BJP government’s divisions and role conspiracies. Almost a year before the elections, the government is under tremendous pressure due to the silent ‘Long March’ of the farmers. A clear constituency of the NDA and all other opposition political parties, including Shiv Sena, have come out in full support of the farmers. The ‘Red Sea’, marched by locals for the red flag, has captured the imagination of the people. Political activists and ordinary citizens can be seen talking to farmers and sharing selfies with them for the first time in history. This movement of Indian workers, peasants, laborers and oppressed classes above caste, color, race and religion will lay new foundations of tolerance and brotherhood in the region. We can only hope that this movement will have a far-reaching impact on the politics of the region and will strengthen the peace struggle between India and Pakistan and create a rolling elite war frenzy between the two countries By cutting it, the public budget will stop spending on stockpiling weapons. =================== Pervez Fateh (Leeds-UK) 01/01/2021 ) Pervez Fateh is based in Leeds, UK and is involved in the British aerospace industry. He is the coordinator of the South Asian People’s Forum, a progressive organization of South Asian countries in the UK, and is active in anti-racism and social justice in the UK.
